I was riding at Stinson and did an upwind tack on the inside, when I stomped the turn the center fin on my tri hit the sand and snapped off... I kept riding and it loosened up my board dramatically... made it feel really skatey and fast, not good for big bottom turns but was awesome for being on the wave, surfing, lip smashing, and barrel riding (by this I mean riding on top of the barrel). It didn't seem to change the upwind efficiency either, just had to ride the edge a little more and keep it pointed in the right direction.

I've heard of people removing the center fin on purpose to get this effect. I slapped on a cheapo future and can't feel a difference between that and the high quality stock fins... anyone that wants to feel a major difference should remove that fin and try it. Not good for OB or big surf but awesome for knee-slappers.

Yep....changing fin size or configuration will change performance. fiberglass vs. plastic...not so much in the sizes we ride.

As for the race guys, yep, they ride super stiff glass fins, but consider for a minute that they are like 16+ inches long but not all that wide. A plastic fin would deform in that configuration enough to matter to a racer.

sc-surfer wrote:As for the race guys, yep, they ride super stiff glass fins, but consider for a minute that they are like 16+ inches long but not all that wide.

That reminds me of a story I heared while kiting in Belmot. I talked to a dude who had a race board, and people commented on the size of his fins. The guy then proceeded to tell a story how his friend jumped a race board and then landed on the fin with his ass. The guy almost died from loosing too much blood...

Grew up surfing. Fins particularly glass on fins can make a huge difference. Look at pros who travel with glassed fin boards. I have a pair of bamboo fins from 101fin and really like the feel when surfing. Kiting I tend to notice fins less but surfing definitely makes a difference.

Nxnwsurfer wrote:Grew up surfing. Fins particularly glass on fins can make a huge difference. Look at pros who travel with glassed fin boards. I have a pair of bamboo fins from 101fin and really like the feel when surfing. Kiting I tend to notice fins less but surfing definitely makes a difference.

That's totally counterintuitive. As speed increases the effect of the foil increases (I believe it's an exponential increase). At the low speeds of surfing, 'most' of the effect you will feel is based on total fin area and location. The fin cluster has a number of variables we can play with:

@ sc-surfer: Agreed the science would dictate that but given my avg ability kiting waves relative to years surfing personally just tend to notice more on cutback. Kiting for me in waves is more down the line and harder to tell flex/stiffness of the fin. My 2 cents. I'm sure caution crew pushing turns enough to notice plenty.